


The Woods Are Lovely (Dark And Deep)

by agirlnamedtruth



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Fate & Destiny, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-08
Updated: 2014-06-08
Packaged: 2018-02-03 22:19:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1758395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agirlnamedtruth/pseuds/agirlnamedtruth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Darkling Woods bring out memories in the strangest ways.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Woods Are Lovely (Dark And Deep)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [Camelot Land](http://camelot-land.livejournal.com) prompt "Darkling Woods". Title from "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost.

When she has nothing else left in the world, Morgana makes her home in the Darkling Woods. It is dangerous, she knows, to be so close to Camelot but she can’t bear to be any further from it.

The woods hold so many memories for her, like a receptacle of her past, each memory like a grain of sand in an hour glass. They trickle out, one by one, in the most unexpected ways.

Passing a tree, she’ll see a deep cut in it, made when Arthur had teased her while they fought with blunt swords. She’d meant to take off his head, though the sword had been dulled to stop that ever happening. He ducked and she struck the tree instead. It shouldn’t have even made a dent in the bark but she’d been furious and put her whole body into the swing. Even Arthur had to admit he was impressed by her strength. She’d just shrugged wordlessly and refused to play with him for the rest of the day. Even then she’d wondered if perhaps it hadn’t been her own strength, now she knew for certain it had not been and to see it sent a chill down her spine. If she’d been seen then, if Arthur had told his father, she would not have lived longer than her eleventh birthday.

At the sound of distant hoof beats, she hears the laughter of two girls. Gwen had been able to shoe a horse, feed it and groom before she’d ever ridden one. Morgana was fifteen when Guinevere came into her service and she herself could ride as well as any man but Gwen had never had cause to learn. Morgana took her out into the woods, leading her own mare by the bridle while Gwen sat uneasily in the saddle. The horse was nervous because her rider was nervous and with each step, Morgana whispered calming thoughts to the creature. A few miles deep into the woods, Morgana fatally stepped on a fallen branch and it cracked like lightning. It happened as if in slow motion, the mare reared, Gwen screamed and Morgana saw the future in broken bones and blood. Then somehow, as if her pure fear of such a thing happening prevented it, Gwen was suddenly in her arms, caught. They looked at each other with wide eyes for a moment and then Gwen started laughing, startling Morgana into doing the same. “I’m not scared anymore,” Gwen said. “Isn’t that funny?”

And somewhere, she knows, is a blackened circle, burnt by magic. She was the centre of that circle once, though she didn’t know it at the time. Sometimes she walks a circle herself, to remember that she chose this life in the woods. She chose her sister. She chose the path that lead into darkness as she stole away in the middle of the night to these woods, away from her home.

She knows fate is like one of the many trees in the Darkling woods. Ancient and strong, buried deep in the earth but as it stretches on, it splits, branches off into things that could have been, paths never taken. Sleeping, surrounded by trees, having burnt every other branch, she wonders what her life would have looked like if she’d stayed out of the woods.

**Author's Note:**

> As of 01/01/18, I'm opting to disable comments. [More information here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/13077201).


End file.
